Freud’s dream companions

Dogs helped Freud through illness

source: Susie GreenGuardian, Weekend March 23 2002 p67

Sigmund Freud did not have a dog until he was in his 70s, when he was given a German Shepherd called Wolf, by Anna, his daughter, in the 1920s. Anna later complained that he transferred his affected from her to Wolf. Freud was then given a chow called Lun-Yu, in 1928, but she was hit by a train and killed 15 months later. He was greatly saddened by her death, and then felt able to take on her sister, called Jofi, who became his close companion.

Jofi was always fed choice tit-bits when Freud was eating. He suffered from cancer of the jaw, which made eating painful, so sometimes she ate the whole of his meal, and she became a little tubby. She was a great comfort to Freud when he was wearied by his illness, and when he suffered pain from his operations. He wrote that she seemed to understand everything, her sympathy for him was so great.

Jofi’s death in 1937 caused Freud intense grief, and he wondered whether he would get over her loss. He noted that it was not easy to recover since she had shared seven years of closeness with him.DO,HH